


Drift Compatible

by DeceitfulHonesty



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Mentions of Tripp's death, Pacific Rim AU, drift compatible
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-05-22 19:03:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6090976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeceitfulHonesty/pseuds/DeceitfulHonesty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pacific Rim AU. Daisy Johnson disappears after a jaeger mission gone terribly wrong. When she returns, she has two goals: warn everyone to prepare for a major kaiju attack and find a new copilot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Everybody at the Playground knew Daisy’s story. How she and her copilot were out on a routine mission. How the kaiju they were tracking split itself into 3 fully grown monsters while Daisy and Tripp were guiding a small fishing boat out of the way. How the kaijus ambushed them and tore their jaeger apart before ripping Tripp from it.

  
After Tripp was disconnected, radio communication went silent and everyone waited with bated breath, fearing the worst.

  
Then, suddenly they got an SOS call from the shore. Daisy was miraculously alive and somehow had managed to pilot the jaeger to the shore before collapsing.

  
Jemma was on duty that night in the clinic. She was there when they wheeled Daisy in on a gurney, covered in blood that wasn’t her own and with a circuit-board pattern freshly burned into her arms and back. Jemma was in charge of barking out orders to the nurses in the clinic, while Daisy drifted in and out of lucidity and muttered nonsense under her breath. Jemma was more focused on making sure Daisy didn’t have any hemorrhaging in her brain from the neural load of piloting the jaeger by herself to truly listen to what she was saying. When she did, she realized Daisy seemed to be conversing with herself, but half of the dialogue sounded like Tripp’s words.  
As soon as Daisy was well enough to stand on her own, she disappeared. No one had to ask why she left and, although much of the base mourned the loss of both of their heroes, they let her go.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
_Months Later_

  
“I just think it would be cool to study one someday.”

  
“Jemma, you realize these are giant aliens from another dimension. How do you plan to study them?” Fitz asked.

  
Jemma shrugged and went back to taking inventory. “I don’t know, but can you imagine how fascinating that would be? Imagine what we could do with a few samples.”

  
Fitz sighed. “I don’t have to imagine. I remember that time the subway in Tokyo was shut down because a kaiju’s blood burned through the concrete above it and dropped a twenty ton carcass on the train! For all we know, their livers are explosive.”

  
“Well, we won’t know unless we do some testing, will we?” Jemma retorted.

  
“Fine, just keep your testing far away from my side of the lab.” Fitz muttered.

  
Jemma rolled her eyes. It wasn’t like she would get to do any testing for the foreseeable future. There hadn’t been a kaiju attack in months, which was as disconcerting as it was a relief. The jaegers were still sent out occasionally, some to monitor the breach, but most to help with some of the heavy lifting involved in rebuilding the destroyed cities. The Mockingbird, piloted by Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter, was scheduled to return from one such mission shortly.

  
Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity in the hall. It seemed everyone in the base was clustered together, talking over each other and quickly walking in the same direction. Jemma caught Bobbi trailing at the end of the crowd, still fresh from her mission, and darted out to grab her.

  
“Bobbi, what’s happening?” Jemma asked.

  
“Daisy’s back,” Bobbi replied, waving Fitz and Simmons to follow her.

  
Fitz balked. “Daisy _Johnson_?”

  
“Of course it’s Daisy Johnson, Fitz. How many ‘Daisy’s’ do we know?” Jemma retorted, jogging after Bobbi down the hall. “Why is she back? Where has she been?”

  
“I don’t know,” Bobbi muttered, “She just came charging into the base with two guys and said she needed to talk to Coulson. No one’s gotten a word out of her since.”

  
They followed the mob to the mess hall. Everyone was muttering under their breath, wondering what could be so urgent that Daisy would come back. No one had heard from her in months or even knew if she was alive. Jemma was mostly curious to see what kind of mental state she was in.

  
Daisy finally found her target and her voice rang out across the quiet hall.

  
“Coulson!”

  
Coulson swiveled around and nearly dropped his lunch tray when he saw her.

  
“Daisy,” he breathed.

  
“We’ve got a big problem,” Daisy continued, “Another breach is opening.”

  
Jemma finally saw Daisy as she stepped out of the crowd. She looked much different than the last time Jemma had seen her. For one, her hair was shorter. She looked older. Stronger. Her eyes that previously had a glaze to them that only comes from trauma were now lit with fire.

  
A gasp went around the crowd at Daisy’s announcement. Coulson blanched, but otherwise kept his composure.

  
“Is this the best place to talk about this?” Coulson prodded.

  
Daisy nodded fervently. “This can’t wait and it’ll involve everyone, so here is perfect. We have six months until the new breach opens and then, all hell’s going to break loose. We need to upgrade the jaegers we have, as well as recruiting pilots for new ones. That’s why I brought Lincoln and Joey with me.” Daisy gestured to the two new men who came in with her.

  
“Okay,” Coulson said, “I’ll call a meeting so we can nail down the specifics. Where did you get this information?”

  
Daisy suddenly looked nervous and mumbled something under her breath.

  
“What was that, Daisy?”

  
“ _I met a clairvoyant_ ,” she blurted loudly.

  
Jemma scoffed and she could hear a number of others joining in.

  
“How can you trust this information?” Coulson said gently. Jemma could tell he didn’t outright want to condemn the idea.

  
“She’s never been wrong before. Especially not about something big, like this,” Daisy defended. “And if there’s even a possibility that this is true, we need to prepare for it.”

  
Coulson nodded. “Alright. We’ll get to work. Anything else we need to know?”

  
“Yeah,” Daisy replied, “I’m going to need a copilot.”

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
Over the next few weeks, everyone on the base was subjected to psychological and physical exams to determine if they could pilot a jaeger. New recruits were brought in from around the world and began training and testing for compatibility. Jemma supervised many of the trials, offering input when necessary and keeping records of recruits’ physical conditions.

  
Jemma was attempting to update their personnel records on the database, when Fitz ran in and dragged her from her seat.

  
“Fitz, I’m working! What are you doing?” Jemma demanded.

  
“Daisy’s doing her compatibility trial. Everyone’s going to see who she ends up with,” Fitz replied.

  
“Fitz, I’ve supervised almost a hundred trials in the past weeks, I think I’ve seen enough.” Jemma jerked her arm from Fitz’s hold, but continued following him down the hall. She was curious to see the famous Daisy Johnson fight. She was supposed to be one of the best they had.

  
The ring were they did the trials was huge, so most of the spectators could gather around easily. Fitz shoved through the crowd, declaring something about seniority, and pushed Jemma and himself to the very edge of the ring.

  
Daisy was already sparring with Bobbi when they arrived. Jemma could already see that they wouldn’t be compatible. Bobbi’s style was all flair and acrobatics, while Daisy’s was more straightforward and utilitarian. Jemma muttered this to Fitz.

  
When Daisy got flipped on her back, Coulson called an end to the match. Bobbi helped Daisy up and gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder as she exited the ring.

  
Now that she was standing still, Jemma could see Daisy more fully. She was barefoot and wearing loose sweatpants and a tank top. Jemma’s eyes lingered over the circuit-board scars that trailed over her exposed arms as a constant reminder of what she had been through.  
Daisy leaned against the wooden quarterstaff and scanned the crowd, while she waited for her next opponent. Jemma hadn’t realized she’d been staring until Daisy’s eyes locked on hers and she blushed and quickly looked away.

  
The finally set her up with one of the new recruits and the match began. Jemma noticed that Melinda May was standing next to Coulson, moderating the match and taking notes. Other than Jemma, she was probably the most capable of picking out drift compatibility.

  
That match, and the next dozen, all ended the same way: with the opponent flat on their back and Daisy looking frustrated. To the untrained eye, many of the match-ups seemed promising, but Jemma could see the subtleties that would make two people incompatible. Even their beginning stance could give them away. After every match, she would mutter the outstanding points to Fitz beside her.

  
“His form is much too sloppy, that’ll never work.”

  
“She’s treating this like a death match, not a dialogue. Far too aggressive.”

  
“No. Just no.”

  
She could tell Fitz was starting to irritated with her commentary after the fifteenth match. Apparently he wasn’t the only one.

  
“Do you have something to say to me?”

  
It took Jemma a minute to realize that the question was directed at her and that everyone’s eyes were now on her. Daisy was leaning on her staff and frowning in Jemma’s direction. She seemed especially exhausted and frustrated, but there was still a playful tone to her voice.

  
“Uh...I’m sorry?” Jemma stuttered.

  
“After every match, you’ve been getting this squishy little irritated face and making snarky comments. So, what’s the deal?”

  
Jemma flushed. She did not like having all this attention on her. She hadn’t realized that anyone other than Fitz had been paying attention to her assessments.

  
“It’s nothing. It’s not you, it’s just that all of your matches have been glaringly incompatible before they even started,” Jemma muttered sheepishly.

  
“You want to give it a go?” Daisy dared.

  
“What? No! No, definitely not. I’m not a fighter, I’m just a scientist.” Jemma backed away, hoping the crowd would swallow her up and allow her to escape from Daisy’s burning gaze.

  
No such luck. May seemed to appear from nowhere behind Jemma and pushed her towards the front of the ring, despite Jemma’s fervent protests.

  
Jemma took her shoes off as instructed and gulped. She had some basic self-defense training. Nothing spectacular, but possibly enough to get her out of a shady situation should she need to. She had definitely never sparred with someone who was well-trained.

  
May at least acknowledged her hesitation. “Everyone needs to try. We’re going to need all hands on deck in the coming months.”

  
Jemma nodded. She understood the urgency to get every jaeger piloted, she just knew she wasn’t going to be one of them. And she really didn’t fancy embarrassing herself in front of half the base to make that point.

  
A heavy, wooden staff was thrust into Jemma’s hands and she never felt more out of her element.

  
Jemma tentatively stepped into the ring. She saw Fitz giving her an encouraging thumbs up. Bobbi had joined him and she had a similar encouraging smile on, but looked almost as nervous as Jemma felt.

  
Then, Jemma’s eyes found her opponent. Daisy was patiently waiting for Jemma to be ready, but was circling like a shark and twirling her quarterstaff slowly. Daisy eyes raked up and down Jemma’s body and she felt even more exposed. Despite the playful glint in Daisy’s eyes she still looked extremely intimidating. Maybe she would just knock Jemma unconscious on her first strike and save Jemma from a drawn out embarrassment.

  
Even though Jemma had never been through it herself, she knew the process for the match. She squared her shoulders and marched towards the center of the ring to meet Daisy. Once they reached each other in the middle they tapped their staves together and took three steps backwards to fall into stance. Daisy slid easily into a relaxed position where she was still ready to strike. Jemma still felt like she was going to drop the staff any minute.

  
“Remember,” Daisy said, “This is a—”

  
“Dialogue, not a fight,” Jemma finished, rolling her eyes. This wasn’t her first day at the Playground. Out of the corner of her eye, Jemma noticed May already scribbling something down on her board. Great, she had already messed up.

  
With no warning, Daisy darted forward. Jemma squeaked and jerked her staff up. No one was more surprised than her when she managed to block the attack. Daisy smirked and backed away to start circling again.

  
Jemma paralleled her motion, making sure to keep Daisy a fair distance back. If she could actually see the attack coming, she would be able to block it. The best offense is a good defense, right?

  
Daisy darted in again and Jemma twisted to block. Daisy was prepared this time and swung again, pausing right before she would have hit Jemma in the head.

  
“One-nothing.”

  
Jemma huffed. She was doing better than she thought she would at least. Her eyes drifted over to Fitz, who was excitedly bouncing and cheering her on.

  
“Never take your eye off your opponent,” Daisy muttered, before taking a slow swing at Jemma again to get her attention.

  
Jemma was still paying attention, though. She ducked sharply and thrust her staff between Daisy’s arms to get the leverage to jerk the staff from her hands. Once Daisy was unarmed, Jemma thrust forward, stopping just inches before making contact.

  
“One-one,” she replied, triumphantly.

  
A gasp went around the room. Daisy looked pleasantly stunned and went to retrieve her staff. Fitz had his mouth hanging open as they centered themselves again. Even Jemma didn’t know where that came from. Instinct just sort of took over.

  
They continued to spar, staying mostly even on hits. Jemma ended up flat on her back once and assumed that would be the end of the match, but Daisy squared up for another round.

  
The next round, Daisy dove in, attempting to use her body weight to throw Jemma off balance. Jemma had seen her do this before and knew just how to counter it. She quickly widened her stance and shifted her weight backwards, before jerking her staff horizontally above her head to block Daisy’s downward strike.

  
When Daisy made contact, Jemma pushed hard against her strike, keeping their combined weight centered. Daisy grinned as she leaned her whole weight against Jemma. Jemma swore she could feel electricity sparking off Daisy’s body, before she backed off and squared up again.

  
This time, Daisy did something unexpected: she went low. She feigned a head strike and, at the last minute ducked to sweep Jemma’s feet out from under her. Jemma corrected slightly, but still lost balance and grappled for the nearest thing to stop herself from falling.  
Unfortunately, her back still hit the ground and, since the only thing nearby to grab onto was Daisy, she had her breath knocked out of her when Daisy tumbled on top of her. Daisy managed to catch herself slightly by bracing herself on her hands on either side of Jemma’s head.

  
They both caught their breath for a minute, before the wolf-whistling from the surrounding crowd reminded them of their compromising position. Jemma felt her face burning, both from exertion and embarrassment and noticed Daisy flushing as well. Daisy rolled off and quickly slid to her feet, before holding a hand to Jemma.

  
Once on her feet, Jemma glanced over at Coulson and May. They were discussing intently and comparing notes on the match. Daisy was beaming at her. Coulson and May finally finished their conferring and nodded to each other.

  
“Congratulations,” Coulson announced, “You two are drift compatible.”


	2. Chapter 2

Jemma barely stuck around for the ‘congratulations’ after Coulson’s announcement, before she darted back to the lab. Fitz trailed along after her and scrambled to dump his lunch out on a table and thrusted the paper bag into Jemma’s hands while she hyperventilated.

“I can’t be a ranger. There’s no way I can pilot a three-hundred-foot tall robot!” Jemma screeched between puffs into the bag. “I’ve never even operated anything bigger than a bike.”

“It’s going to be fine, Jemma,” Fitz said reassuringly. “Daisy knows what she’s doing and she’ll be there, too.”

“Do you know what the mortality rate for Jaeger pilots is?” Jemma asked.

“Um…no?”

“Exactly, because the statistic is too depressing for anyone to calculate!” Jemma snapped, throwing the paper bag to the ground in the process. “You’ve got to worry about nerve damage and cranial hemorrhaging as well as potential radiation poisoning, if you’re working on an older model, and that’s before you even start on the two-thousand ton corrosive aliens that are going to try to rip your limbs off and—”

“Jemma!” Fitz interrupted, pushing the paper bag back into her hands. “You need to breathe.”

“I can’t do this, Fitz,” Jemma protested weakly.

“Yes, you can,” Fitz replied, “And frankly, I’m a bit jealous.”

Jemma rolled her eyes. For ages, Fitz had wanted to be a ranger himself. After the accident, however, it was deemed too dangerous for him. “Yes, because I’m going to enjoy being trapped in a metal contraption and dangled over water.”

Fitz blanched. “Oh. I-I hadn’t thought of it th-that way.”

“I know.” They lapsed into silence for a few moments, while Jemma toyed with the edges of the paper bag. “I suppose there’s no backing out now, is there?”

Fitz shook his head sadly.

“Well, I better get to work then.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma gulped as she gazed up at the mechanical monstrosity in front of her. When she and Fitz were assigned the redesign on Daisy's Jaeger, the Quake, Jemma never imagined she would be the one piloting it at some point. 

The left arm and half of the chest were clearly made of new material, the brighter silver standing in stark contrast to the oxidized and scuffed metal of the rest of the body. Engineers were still dotted along the three-hundred foot tall contraption, welding on the improvements and weapons Jemma and Fitz had designed and covering the jaeger in showers of sparks.

Jemma stretched out her muscles while she paused in her morning routine. Since the day she had matched with Daisy Johnson, Jemma had thrown herself into training. Along with the mental toll, piloting a jaeger required a massive amount of physical exertion. In the past, rangers would spend years in intense training regimens to prepare, but once kaiju attacks started occurring more frequently, the amount of time they had was limited. 

Jemma had no idea how much time they had until they were called to duty, so she started pushing herself into training right away. Jemma woke up every morning and went for a run around the base, frequently using the catwalks through the hangar as her track so she wasn't in the way around the base. Then, she went down to the gym and finished her workout alone or headed to the combat room to train with Bobbi or May, when they were available. 

Today was a gym day. Jemma finished her stretching, spared one last glance at the massive mech that, statistically, was likely to kill her and turned to continue her run, only to nearly collide with someone.

“Pretty impressive, isn't it?”

It was Daisy. Jemma bit back a squeak of surprise and stumbled back a few paces. Daisy appeared unperturbed and didn't move from her position leaned against the railing of the catwalk.

Jemma cleared her throat. “Yes, I suppose it’s...something.”

“Just ‘something?’” Daisy gasped. “I designed this baby all by myself.” 

“Unfortunately, it’s hardly the jaeger you designed at this point,” Jemma said. “In addition to the major repairs from its…last mission, it’s been almost entirely upgraded with technology we’ve developed in the last few months.”

“Oh.” Daisy’s eyebrows raised in interest. “Tell me more.”

Jemma turned back to the jaeger and started going through the mental list of alterations she and Fitz had approved. “Well, we’ve upgraded the radiation shielding around the core, since we wanted to keep the nuclear power for this model. Then, we added in a secondary power source that’s digital, like most of the newer models, and can produce twice the energy, but is susceptible to EMP blasts, which we’ve encountered in the past. Also, we added in some rocket launchers in the shoulder joints, upgraded Plasmacasters that charge faster and can fire more rounds, a GD6 Chain Sword, and—”

“I’m sorry, did you say Chain Sword?” Daisy asked with her eyes lighting up. 

Jemma smirked. That was Fitz’s favorite upgrade. “I did.”

“That is so cool! When do we get to play with it?” Daisy asked leaning over the railing toward the Jaeger, probably hoping to see the sword. 

“Hopefully never,” Jemma grumbled and resumed her stretching. As much as Daisy needed to be briefed on the upgrades, it was cutting into her workout time. 

“Spoil sport. What’s all that down there?” Daisy asked, gesturing to the feet and legs of the robot that had been completely redesigned and were almost unrecognizable. 

“That was my input,” Jemma announced proudly. “The feet have been completely redesigned to be less hazardous to the marine life and ocean floor habitats we encounter during Jaeger missions. Killing the kaiju alone was disastrous to the ecosystem, just because of the biological hazards of the kaiju’s bodies. Then, in addition to that, we brought in these giant, thousand-ton robots that stomped on reefs and large ocean life and made everything worse and— Why are you staring at me like that?”

About halfway through Jemma’s tirade, Daisy glanced at Jemma with a strange look in her eyes and a smirk on her lips. 

Daisy huffed a short laugh. “You’re cute when you talk science-y.”

Jemma hid her flush by rolling her eyes and plugging in her headphones to continue her jog along the catwalk.

Daisy caught up and jogged alongside Jemma. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

Daisy sped up and whipped around so she was jogging backwards, facing Jemma. 

“Have you been avoiding me?”

“What? Why would I be avoiding you?” Jemma deflected. Truthfully, she had been avoiding Daisy. After the compatibility trial, Jemma could hardly look Daisy in the eyes. Every time she did, she wondered what would have happened if they hadn’t been in a crowded room at the time and Jemma’s face would turn the shade of a firetruck. 

Also, the fact that, once they were approved to go on missions, Daisy would be in her head and vice versa. Maybe it was because she was unused to the idea, but it seemed extremely invasive to Jemma. Who knew what they would see in the drift.

“I don’t know, you tell me. Every time I try to find you to train, you’re either in the lab working or have already finished training with someone else,” Daisy replied. “So, what’d I do?”

“You’re going to trip over something,” Jemma scolded, watching Daisy’s feet as she continued to run backwards. 

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Jemma slowed to a walk, still fearing that Daisy was going to somehow trip and fall off the catwalk. “You didn’t do anything. I’m just- It’s a little— I don’t know, I’m new to all this!” She threw up her hands in frustration. “It’s just a little intimidating suddenly being paired up with a veteran jaeger pilot, when I’ve never even _thought_ about becoming a ranger and now I’m about to get in one of these massive things and fight giant aliens?”

Daisy nodded slowly in understanding. “I can see how that would be a bit overwhelming.”

“Exactly,” Jemma huffed. “It’s nothing that you did. I’m just—”

“Scared?” Daisy supplied. 

“Yes.”

“I get it. Every ranger’s been where you are at some point. It helps to talk it over with your copilot, though,” Daisy smirked and gave Jemma a pointed look. 

Jemma sighed and continued walking towards the gym. “I know. I’ve just been…busy. Preparing.”

“I could help you, ya know,” Daisy offered. “I’ve been through the ranger training program, so I kind of know what to do.”

“That’s very considerate, but I think I can manage alone,” Jemma replied. 

Daisy continued to trail after Jemma on her way to the gym. Once there, Jemma loaded the appropriate amount of weight onto one of the barbells, while Daisy leaned against the doorway. 

“You know it’s dangerous to do that without a spotter,” Daisy quipped. 

Jemma rolled her eyes and settled onto the bench. A scraping sound against the concrete floor drew her attention behind her. Daisy pulled up a stool and positioned herself with her knees on either side of Jemma’s head and leaned over the bench. 

“What are you doing?” Jemma asked.

“Helping you train,” Daisy replied with a smile. “Just trust me, okay?”

Jemma pursed her lips and searched Daisy’s upside down features. A jaeger team was supposed to be built on trust and, given that she hardly knew Daisy, Jemma supposed she would have to start somewhere. 

“Alright, I’ll trust you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Training together turned into a regular activity for Jemma and Daisy. Daisy would meet Jemma at the end of her run and then guide her through a series of exercises to build up her strength. 

After a few weeks in the gym, Daisy finally convinced Jemma to train with her in the combat room. They spent hours sparring each other, only pausing so Daisy could correct Jemma’s stance or make suggestions of counter-attacks. Once Jemma felt reasonably confident in her moves, Daisy asked Hunter and Bobbi to spar with them, so Jemma could test out her techniques on someone who wasn’t so in tune with herself. 

Today, Jemma and Daisy had decided to forgo sparring with quarterstaves and instead were practicing hand-to-hand combat. Jemma was nearly distracted by May marching into the room and had to duck a particularly vicious roundhouse kick from Daisy before May cleared her throat, bringing them both to a halt. 

“Hey, May. What’s up?” Daisy asked, still breathless from the match. 

“I see training is going well,” May remarked, nodding in Jemma’s direction.

Jemma nodded in agreement. “Daisy has been a tremendous help these last few weeks.”

“Aw shucks, you’re making me blush,” Daisy teased and nudged Jemma in the shoulder. “Jemma was already pretty good. Given a few more weeks, we could be the best jaeger team at the Playground.” 

“Unfortunately, your timetable is going to have to move up.” May pulled a slip of paper out of the folder she was carrying and passed it over to Daisy, who frowned as she read over it. 

“You’re scheduled for your trial run in three days.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did promise this was going to be a multi-chapter pic at some point, so I'm finally delivering!! Enjoy~~


	3. Chapter 3

Jemma paced around the lab while Fitz set up the machines for the trial run. Normally she was working alongside Fitz in this situation, but today she was the one being subjected to it. Well, both herself and Daisy, who she kept slapping away from the equipment. 

“So why don’t we do the trial run in the actual jaeger? It would be more realistic practice,” Daisy asked. 

“We had a bit of an…incident awhile back during a trial run,” Fitz muttered, flipping a few more switches on the machine. 

Daisy cocked an eyebrow and waited for him to elaborate, but since he wasn’t looking, Jemma filled her in. “Bobbi and Hunter nearly fired their weapons inside the base the first time they tried to drift.”

Daisy snorted. “How?”

“They were in the middle of a disagreement of some sort when we initiated the drift,” Fitz replied. “They ended up getting knocked out of alignment and nearly blew up the base before we could power them down. So, we decided that in the future, the first drift would be done in a more secure way and I designed this little beauty to help out.”

Fitz patted the arm of a miniature jaeger that was set in the middle of the room with thick wires anchoring it to the computer. It only stood about six feet tall, but was a perfect scale model of the full-sized jaeger, other than not being equipped with any weapons. It had all the wiring to create a simulation of the inside of the actual jaeger, so the copilots could test their connection and practice starting up the various systems they would need to navigate. 

“This is a modification of the original prototype of a jaeger. They were first made to hold one person, like a suit of armor, but they realized that it would take a whole fleet of them to take down a 300 foot kaiju, so they had to scale them up and remove the flight capabilities,” Fitz explained as he jabbed some more wires into the back of the mini-jaeger. “I modified one of the original Iron Man prototypes to be remotely controlled by the drift software so we could use it in our trials. I call it the Dwarf.”

Jemma kept pacing and let Fitz ramble about the equipment. She had heard all this already, whenever a pair of rangers came in who would ask about the trial run process. Fitz loved talking about the process to anyone who would listen, so she would just roll her eyes and start taking the pilots’ vitals. 

But now she was about to get put in the drift herself. She had already tried to check Daisy’s vitals to keep busy, but was swatted away by Fitz, who told her she just needed to relax before the process began. 

She wasn’t doing very well at that. Daisy seemed completely at ease, leaning against one of the tables and poking at some of the unfinished prototypes that Fitz had left lying around. Presumably, she wasn’t nervous because she had drifted with someone plenty of times before. For her, this was just a test to make sure her and Jemma could work together in the drift. 

For Jemma, this whole thing was brand new and she was dreading the entire process.

“Alright, we’re all set,” Fitz announced. 

Jemma gulped and shuffled towards one of the chairs Fitz had set up facing the Dwarf and eased her way into it. Once she and Daisy were seated, Fitz slipped a metal contraption covered in blinking red electrodes onto both of their heads and adjusted them to make sure they were aligned where they needed to be. 

Jemma took a shaky breath and glanced over to Daisy, who gave her a gentle smile. 

“Relax a little. This is the easy part,” Daisy assured. “Just don’t chase the rabbit.”

“What?”

“Random Access Brain Impulse Triggers. You’re going to get flooded with memories, both yours and mine. Don’t latch on, though, just let them flow away,” Daisy informed. 

“Right.” Jemma knew all about the flashes of memories that the drift could bring up. She just didn’t know how to not fixate on them. 

“Okay, are you ready?” Fitz asked.

Jemma and Daisy shared a look and nodded at Fitz. Fitz gave Jemma a sympathetic smile and a quick thumbs up, before flipping the switch. 

Jemma felt like she was dunked face first into a bucket of swirling water for a second, before things started to appear. Some of the flashes she recognized. Her thirteenth birthday party. Her graduation from the academy. Her first kiss. 

Jemma noticed that the last one lingered a bit longer than the rest and could sense a slight tinge of amusement from Daisy. Jemma grumbled and pushed the memory away. The drift was more intuitive than Jemma expected and she had a degree of control over the memories that flitted by. 

A few memories Jemma could tell were distinctly not hers. There were flashes of an eerie-looking convent-like building that nuns were shuffling a line of children into. A training session at the Ranger Academy. Sitting in a dim room across a table from a woman with heavily lined eyes and black spikes tattooed across her face and the backs of her hands. The bright smile of a man Jemma only recognized from the Wall of Valor as Antoine Triplett. 

An echo of a scream filtered through the silence of the drift. 

“Trip!”

Suddenly, Jemma was in a jaeger. Massive claws raked through the Conn-Pod, leaving a gaping hole in their wake. Jemma was standing behind Daisy who was still hooked into the control mechanisms and reaching for Trip, before the claws returned. 

Before Jemma could see the end of the memory, it was pushed away. Daisy muttered an apology, which sounded clearer and louder than the voices in the memory. 

The momentarily pause had jolted the drift somehow, and the memories flitted by quicker and were harder to discern. 

When everything settled, Jemma was standing in an unfamiliar hallway. She glanced to either side of her, taking in the sterile metal walls on either side of her, extending in both directions before the hallway took a sharp turn. She appeared to be alone. Was this another of Daisy’s memories?

“Jemma!”

Jemma whipped around at the sound of her name. It sounded like Fitz, but the sound was distant and echoed around her. Suddenly, Fitz barreled around the corner screaming her name. 

“Jemma, run! He’s coming!”

Jemma’s heart raced. She knew what this was. And she knew she had to escape. Fitz grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway and around the other corner. 

There was a person in this part of the hallway, but they were standing off to the side and Fitz didn’t even acknowledge them. As they sprinted closer, Jemma recognized the person as Daisy. She was wearing the same outfit she had been when they went to do their trial run, but how did she get here? The blinking lights of the contraption on Daisy’s head seemed to call to Jemma to stop running.

“Jemma, don’t latch on. It’s not real,” Daisy warned. 

A small part of Jemma’s mind told her to stop and go with Daisy, but the more primal part screamed, “No! Run! Escape!” and Jemma obeyed, letting Fitz drag her down the cold, metal hallways, leaving Daisy behind.

They darted down another hallway when a tall dark-haired figure appeared around the corner that Jemma would recognize anywhere: Grant Ward. 

His dark eyes show no emotion as he advanced towards them. Fitz tried to turn them down another hall, but a swarm of black-clad men closed in and restrained them. 

They were shoved into a large metal box filled with various objects, from religious images to small machinery; other 'offerings.' Ward stood stoically next to John Garrett, a man who was on the news frequently for his fanatical actions in public places. Garrett began to ramble about offerings to the Great Hydra from the Sea, hoping for favor when the creature came to 'cleanse the Earth.' His words were drowned out when Fitz started begging. 

“Ward, you don’t have to do this. There’s good in you.”

“Jemma, let go.”

Jemma squeezed her eyes closed and tried to focus in on the voice calling her name, rather than the cacophony of voices hollering “Hail Hydra” and drowning out Fitz’s attempts to bargain with Ward. 

The floor beneath Jemma’s feet jostled and she got one last look at Ward before the box was sealed and she was falling. 

“Nooooooooo!” 

The scream ripped from Jemma’s lips. Her knees ached and her hands stung, but she felt solid ground beneath them. 

“Jemma? Jemma!” 

The voice called to her again and Jemma cracked open her eyes. She was staring down at a cracked concrete floor on her hands and knees. Jemma was dimly aware of a shuffling nearby before a hand grabbed her face and pulled her attention upwards. 

Her eyes met concerned brown ones which searched her face intently. 

“It’s okay. It was just a memory. You’re safe,” Daisy reassured her, stroking her cheek with her thumb as Jemma came back to herself. The sound of Jemma’s ragged breathing filled the room. 

Fitz ran to her side, once all the machines were turned off. “Jemma, are you okay? What d-did you see? W-Was it—Was it—” 

Once Jemma caught her breath, she met his eyes and nodded. She could already see the slight tremor of his hand starting up again and a pang of guilt shot through her. That was why she hated mentioning the incident. 

Daisy pulled Jemma’s gaze back to her. “Hey, you’re okay. It’s over now.” 

Now that she was back in the present, Jemma was flooded in embarrassment coupled with a fresh surge of guilt. Here she was, on her hands and knees on the floor, wasting Daisy’s time for thinking she could be Daisy’s copilot. She knew she shouldn’t have left her lab. 

“I’m—I’m fine. I just—I need a minute,” Jemma mumbled, pushing herself to her feet. She pulled off the electrodes and tossed them on a nearby table, mumbled some feeble reason that she needed to leave, and backed towards the door. 

She heard Daisy call her name once she was out the door, but she ignored her. She didn’t care if it was childish right now. She just needed to get away. Once clear of the lab door, Jemma broke into a sprint, heading for the unused parts of the base before the tears could spring to her eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the scene that inspired the whole fic tbh because I felt like people (read: the show) don't really acknowledge Jemma's side of the season 1 incident because Fitz ended up with all the physical damage. So here it is! Enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! Pacific Rim AUs!!! Because 'drift compatible' is the best term since 'free chocolate' in my opinion. I haven't decided if I'm going to add to this, so for now I'm going to keep it as a one-shot, but we'll see what happens.  
> Also posted on my writing tumblr sad-trash-writing


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